I'm sure i'm only adding to the fray of the 100's of topics that are similar to this, but I did a search and couldn't come up with a clear enough answer to my question, so I'm asking it to everyone.

Everyone who has upgraded their Mini to 1GB Memory using 'Non-Apple' PC2700 RAM - What brands have worked best for you? Any issues at all? Also if possible, provide a link to a site like Newegg with the exact RAM stick that you have bought and had success with.

I'm going to upgrade my Mini's RAM this weekend and I want to get it right the first time, I don't want to spend the $ and wind up with my mini spazzing out, leaving me to RMA my order and try again.

But I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Where I work back in 2000 we bought a group of Micron (of which Crucial is a part of) PC's (333Mhz Pentium II's) that were total pieces of crap. Every last one of them had some sort of hardware problem or other. Over half of them had to have case fans of one sort or another be replaced due to bearing issues. Several had processor or HD issues, and a couple I believe even had faulty (Crucial) RAM issues. Swore me off anything Micron/Crucial related forever. Thank God it wasn't my money and my machines and only my employer's.

FWIW, I believe I have a 1GB Samsung stick in my Mac Mini now and I've had good luck with PNY and Kingston RAM in my PCs.

Everyone who has upgraded their Mini to 1GB Memory using 'Non-Apple' PC2700 RAM - What brands have worked best for you? Any issues at all? Also if possible, provide a link to a site like Newegg with the exact RAM stick that you have bought and had success with.

But I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. Where I work back in 2000 we bought a group of Micron (of which Crucial is a part of) PC's (333Mhz Pentium II's) that were total pieces of crap. Every last one of them had some sort of hardware problem or other. Over half of them had to have case fans of one sort or another be replaced due to bearing issues. Several had processor or HD issues, and a couple I believe even had faulty (Crucial) RAM issues. Swore me off anything Micron/Crucial related forever. Thank God it wasn't my money and my machines and only my employer's.

FWIW, I believe I have a 1GB Samsung stick in my Mac Mini now and I've had good luck with PNY and Kingston RAM in my PCs.

All just my observations and NSHO.

I do not agree with this statement about Micron Memory at all!

I work for one of the largest private corporations in the world. I have built too many servers to count. We have literally hundreds of HP Proliant servers in service. Nearly every one of these servers shipped with either Micron or Samsung Memory. (Usually a mix of the two.) We also have a large installed base of Sun servers and they use Micron Memory extensively. My experience over the last 7 years is that Micron memory is stable, reliable, and enterprise ready period end of discussion.

I cannot speak about Micron PCs and I am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with them. I suspect that Micron PCs were like most of branded PCs of that era. That is they have OEM motherboards made in Taiwan by ASUS, ABIT, etc. For example, many HP consumer PC motherboards are ASUS. While ASUS makes some great motherboards, they have also made some not so great ones. Some of the problems you describe are probably related to the motherboard, not the RAM or processor.

In addition, about 90% of IDE hard drives are made by four major manufacturers. (Again, not part of Micron.) Its not fair to blame third party disk failures on Micron any more than it is fair to blame them on HP, Dell, or Apple. We frequently have to replace disks in our servers. Disks fail and it stinks when they do, but that is just par for the course. It sounds like you were stung by a bad batch of disk drives from Micron's supplier._________________Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz, PowerMac G5 2.3 GHz, iMac Core Duo 17", MacBook Pro 2GHz, MacBook Pro 2.2GHz, Mac mini Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz. Multi-K9 Security System. No false alarms, just lots of sharp teeth.
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Go to the memory manufacturers website and find compatible RAM part numbers.

Use Newegg.com to find the memory and read the reviews of users that say it works in a mini.

Go to Nextag, Pricegrabber, and Pricewatch to see if there is a better price from a trustworthy source.

Purchase the RAM

Searching here you would find that PQI, Viking, Kingston, and Crucial have all been recommended in the past. I used PQI from Newegg.com but the part# is no longer on the site, it was quite popular and works great.

This question has been asked and answered many many times, and all you will end up with is infighting on who's memory is best._________________1.42Ghz
1GB RAM
200GB FW HDD (Boot drive)
80GB HDD
External DVD burner
45.23 Xbench 1.2 average
FireWire Boot Guide

I have been researching a ton at Newegg.com since i posted this topic and it seems that the PQI RAM is the best bet for a mini, almost every review for it is from a mac mini user.

EDIT: Okay here are my options. I could pay 99.00 and buy a PQI stick from Newegg and pay shipping and have it here by the end of the week, OR I could drive down to our local best buy (that opened last week ) and buy a 99.00 Kingston stick. Who wins the battle in PQI vs. Kingston? I think the Kingston RAM at Best Buy is their "ValueRAM" series, and I've had some friends that have had bad experiences with that series, what do you guys think?_________________Me with Woz!Aftershift Music Project | My Music! Feel free to download!
1.42Ghz Mini | 15" 1.67Ghz Hi-Res PowerBook G4
30GB 5th Gen iPod | 512MB Shuffle

I have been researching a ton at Newegg.com since i posted this topic and it seems that the PQI RAM is the best bet for a mini, almost every review for it is from a mac mini user.

EDIT: Okay here are my options. I could pay 99.00 and buy a PQI stick from Newegg and pay shipping and have it here by the end of the week, OR I could drive down to our local best buy (that opened last week ) and buy a 99.00 Kingston stick. Who wins the battle in PQI vs. Kingston? I think the Kingston RAM at Best Buy is their "ValueRAM" series, and I've had some friends that have had bad experiences with that series, what do you guys think?

[rant]I have had horrible, horrible, experiences on a large scale, with kingston Value RAM. Do not walk but RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN away from Kingston Value RAM.[/rant]

Or go to Best Buy try it out and return it if it doesn't work and order from Newegg.com. If it works use it._________________1.42Ghz
1GB RAM
200GB FW HDD (Boot drive)
80GB HDD
External DVD burner
45.23 Xbench 1.2 average
FireWire Boot Guide

Crucial is good. I bought memory to upgrade all of our printers one (HP LJ5Si). Due to some differences in the printer revisions the memory that they listed might or might not work - the crucial guy told me that. I ordered the memory (spent 5k or so on it), when it arrived I tried a stick. It didn't work. I called Crucial, the guy gave me an RMA number and his FedEx account info. This was on a Friday. He had the replacement memory shipped overnight at their expense, I had it in my hands at 9am on a Saturday morning. That memory worked.

Crucial/Micron are one big family, you can't blame their memory division if their computer division, which was trying to compete with everyone else, had issues. You can, I wouldn't, but then again I never bought a Micron box. Too pricey, never was sure what I was going to get inside. Easier to buy local whiteboxes and spec them out.